WP’s Ntubeni off the hook

Western Province hooker Scarra Ntubeni has avoided further punishment after he was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle in their Currie Cup semi-final win over the Golden Lions over the weekend.

By: News24

Ntubeni was sent to the sin-bin in the 73rd minute of the match at Newlands after he tip-tackled the Lions’ Robert de Bruyn. However, according to Die Burger’s website, Ntubeni was not cited by SARU’s disciplinary panel on Sunday.

Last week, Cheetahs prop Schalk van der Merwe was cleared to play after he was cited for a similar dangerous tackle on Blue Bulls fullback Jurgen Visser. Van der Merwe’s tackle was slightly worse than Ntubeni’s though, and if he was cleared to play then it makes sense to not further reprimand the WP hooker.

However, WP coach Allister Coetzee was less then pleased with the incident and said they will deal with the matter internally. Coetzee said he’s seen “far worse” tackles than Ntubeni’s but they will nevertheless deal with the matter as it’s part of their team protocol. “You can’t play with 14 men and the Lions immediately scored a try after that,” said Coetzee.

WP will host the Sharks in the Currie Cup final at Newlands on Saturday (17:30 kick-off).

IMO: You have the different types of tackles, one I like to call the defensive tackle where you tackle low, take the momentum of the ball carrier and consede but bring him down, the other is the offensive tackle where you drive the ball carrier backwards.
Scarra did both at the same time where he let the ball carrier have the momentum going forward but still made the offensive tackle by driving into the bal carrier, what happens then is the ball carrier going forward is tackled low and driven upwards due to the momentum hence the tip… did that make any sense??
not condoning it, just trying to explain why it happens.

I agree, we have to move away from the “seriousness” of the offense to grade offenders and the punishment.

Make it a standard punishment for and offense. Tip tackle: red card and two games off as an example. The same for all other serious offenses ie. trampling, eye gouging, punching, dangerous/high tackles ala Nonu. Leave the adjudication of the seriousness out of it.